The Army-Navy football game used to be a huge draw on television, utilizing the Thanksgiving weekend as a traditional close to the regular season.
As the years moved on, the schools and networks started to schedule more games opposite Army-Navy, which prompted a move to early December. Again, the networks and colleges started to crowd the opening week of December, so in the fall of 2008 officials from Army, Navy and CBS Sports decided to move the game to the second Saturday in December, assuring there would be no competition.
Will that help the ratings? Probably, but by how much remains to be seen. Frankly, Army’s recent woeful seasons have surely taken some of the luster off the ratings. Not even a surge of patriotism following the Sept. 11 attacks provided much of a boost.
Here are the TV ratings dating back to 1997:
Dec. 6, 1997 — 3.8 rating/11 share (Navy 39-7)
Dec. 5, 1998 — 3.7/12 (Army 34-30)
Dec. 4, 1999 — 5.1/15 (Navy 19-9)
Dec. 2, 2000 — 3.4/9 (Navy 30-28)
Dec. 1, 2001 — 2.9/9 (Army 26-17)
Dec. 7, 2002 — 2.5/7 (Navy 58-12)
Dec. 6, 2003 — 3.1/7 (Navy 34-6)
Dec. 4, 2004 — 2.4/6 (Navy 42-13)
Dec, 3, 2005 — 3.0/7 (Navy 42-23)
Dec. 2, 2006 — 2.3/6 (Navy 26-14)
Dec. 1, 2007 — 2.2/6 (Navy 38-3)
Dec. 6, 2008 — 2.0/5 (Navy 34-0)
Dec. 12, 2009 — Overnight numbers for metered markets 4.2; national rating to be announced Thursday
The New York market (WCBS-2) posted a 3.5/8. The Washington, D.C. market (WUSA) posted a 4.6/12. The Baltimore market (WJZ) posted a 7.4/17.
